Wood floors

A floor covering, chosen and maintained with care, will last for decades. Vinyl, linoleum, carpet, wood, ceramic… the choices are impressive! Comfort factors aside, maintenance and durability, colour, style and motifs should be seriously considered, as other decoration schemes may be added in over the years.

The natural warmth and beauty of wood is, without a doubt, an argument that figures at the top of the list when selecting a floor covering. What type of flooring will best suit your lifestyle and your budget? The different characteristics of your flooring, along with the ease of installation and maintenance laid down in this guide will help you make an informed choice.
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The types of flooring
Characteristics
Accessories
Installation
Maintenance

The types of flooring

Wood floor coverings offer many advantages. They’re natural and unadulterated, thus minimizing allergy risks; warm and aesthetically pleasing, they fit into many decors and increase re-sale values, finally, they’re easy to maintain and offer an almost unlimited life span.

But, as it comes from organic matter, wood reacts to humidity. This explains why certain types of flooring are best left out of rooms like the basement or bathroom that can register high humidity levels. In the winter, the humidity contained in the wood evaporates into the heated and dried air. This results in the wood contracting and creating spaces between the flooring pieces. When summer returns, the air becomes saturated with humidity. Absorbing the humidity from the air, the wood expands and reduces the size of the cracks between the floor pieces. This explains why it’s important to store the floor pieces in the room for a few days before they’re installed to allow them to become acclimatized to the room’s temperature and humidity levels.

Hardwood

Hardwood flooring is made of solid wood boards. This type of flooring must be nailed to a sub-floor, also of wood. Wood flooring is suitable for all floors above ground level with the exception of the bathroom where the wood would be subject to overly large variations in humidity levels and higher risks of staining. It’s marketed in two modes: unfinished and pre-varnished.

Unfinished hardwood is sold in many types of species, dimensions and grades. Although, less expensive at the point of purchase, don’t forget the finishing costs related to sanding, staining (if necessary) and varnishing. As these jobs need to be done on-site, the dust sanding, the vapours and smell of the varnish may inconvenience you to the point where you move out for the period of three to five days that it’ll take for the varnish to dry.

Despite these inconveniences, hardwood offers incomparable advantages. For example, via the installation technique (various motifs) and the colours you choose, you can personalize your floor. In fact, as is the case with paint, adding colour to stain allows you to obtain the desired colour, no matter how unusual. Also, sanding on-site helps finish with a very level floor, with no bumps, and for its part, the varnish will seal off the spaces between the boards dust and dirt to accumulate. Note that finishing jobs aren’t guaranteed. So make sure of your choice of contractor by asking for references and, if possible, by visiting a few of his or her jobsites to check the work quality for yourself.

Pre-varnished hardwood needs no effort but the installation. The sanding, staining, varnishing and drying stages are done at the factory in an ideal environment. So, once installed, you’ll be able to walk at once on your new floor and, in comfort of your home, take advantage of its exceptional charm without going through the inconveniences attached to finishing the floor on-site. Even if manufacturers offer a wide range of species, sizes, grades, finishes and colours, it’ll be harder to personalize your floor.

Mosaic or parquet flooring

Mosaic flooring, a.k.a. parquet, is fabricated from wooden strips that are assembled to form squares or rectangles. Very popular in the 1970’s, they’re coming back in style with updated designs. Offered in unfinished or pre-varnished, the choice of species is somewhat limited. This type of flooring must be glued to the sub-floor.

Engineered flooring

Engineered flooring is composed of two to five thin wooden narrow pieces glued to each other to form a parquet strip. The top layer, cut from hardwood, produces a look that’s comparable to solid wood parquet strips. Numerous species are available, even exotic woods, and this for a fraction of the price.

Under the effects of humidity, this type of flooring expands along its width. To counter this problem, manufacturers place the pieces in a cross-grainpattern. This method produces a more stable mass that can be installed in the basement and even in direct contact with the cement sub-floor. Engineered parquet can be nailed, glued, stapled or floating.
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